Tony Schumacher set a single season record Saturday at
Virginia Motorsports Park with his 12th No. 1 qualifying effort of the
year. Eric Medlen and Jason Line also secured top qualifying spots in
their categories at the $1.6 million Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals,
the 21st of 23 races in the $50 million NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
Series.

Schumacher's 12 low qualifiers breaks the mark of 11 he set in 2005. His
only challenge for this weekend's top qualifying spot came from Rookie
of the Year candidate J.R. Todd, who powered his Skull Shine dragster a
4.528 at 318.39 mph during Saturday's first session. In the end,
Schumacher's Friday pass of 4.512 at 313.37 mph in his U.S. Army
dragster was enough for his 34th career No. 1 position.

"I always talk about how important these qualifying points are,"
Schumacher said. "Look at it this way; Brandon Bernstein has one more
round win than me this year but we're more than half a round ahead of
him in the points standings. That's solely from qualifying better than
him all year. I'd say qualifying points are very important."

In an interesting twist to the Top Fuel championship battle, Schumacher,
Bernstein and points leader Doug Kalitta are all on the same side of the
16-car ladder for Sunday's 11 a.m. eliminations.

"This race has become a do-or-die deal in my book," Schumacher said.
"It's time for one of us to step up and make a statement. We need to win
this thing, period."

Eric Medlen

Medlen waited until the second-to-last pairing of qualifying to nudge
John Force Racing teammate Robert Hight off the Funny Car podium with a
track record time of 4.728 seconds at 311.49 mph in his Castrol Syntec
Ford Mustang. Hight fell to second in his Auto Club Mustang, while team
owner and current points leader Force quietly assumed the third position
with a 4.765 at 315.78 mph in his Castrol GTX Mustang.

"It's cool to have our three Fords 1-2-3 on the ladder," Medlen said.
"We take a lot of pride in that because our job is to put Ford on top
and when you have all three cars up there like that I think it's pretty
phenomenal, especially in this day and age of drag racing."

Ron Capps, who entered the race one point behind Force in the
championship standings, is a distance 13th here with a best of 4.848 at
283.73 mph in his Brut Dodge Charger. He now trails Force by six points
in the series standings.

Jason Line

For the second race in a row, Line out-performed Summit Racing Pontiac
GTO teammate Greg Anderson and put himself in position to claim a Pro
Stock national record and 20 bonus points, which could represent a
40-point swing in the championship standings. At the last race, Line
stole the record away from Anderson during eliminations. Here he did it
during the second day of qualifying, setting both ends of the national
record with a performance of 6.571 at 209.49 mph to lead the quickest
field ever.

"That record might not stay with me," Line said. "Greg could easily take
it away. I know that car can go quicker and faster than it did today.
It'll all depend on the conditions we see tomorrow. I know the mindset
on our team is to go as fast as we can every round. We don't change that
in eliminations."